Halloween Fun: Jekyll and Hyde (Club)

My family (and by family I mean not only my wife and son, but my parents as well) came to the city for an early birthday celebration, and part of that visit was a "dinner wherever you want."

This of course leads to a series of minor hijinks in its own right, as is typical for the way life moves along. I thoroughly enjoy Halloween, horrors, and general spookiness, and my Mom is not a fan of many of the places my wife and I typically enjoy, so I thought I'd finally try the haunted scary house themed restaurant near the Port Authority (with the conveniently located A-C-E subway line only a short walk away...like, across the street from the restaurant) that I'd been eyeballing whenever I happened by that area.

I thought it was called the Jekyll and Hyde Club. I'd even seen a vehicle driving around Manhattan with skeletons and zombies, making it seem like it could be a cool experience. My parents, as part of my birthday, sent some money along with a note to get in their club membership so we could get seated more quickly.

I don't often go to Times Square. It seems most New Yorkers don't need to elaborate on this explanation, but for those who aren't living here, I'll just say that my idea of fun isn't having to shove through a mass of shambling tourists and leave it at that. I kept putting off getting the membership until my wife came to visit over Comic Con weekend, when I knew we'd probably, at some point, end up going through Times Square.

My wife looked up the restaurant for some information. This was when Google said the restaurant was permanently closed.

"That doesn't seem right," I said. "There were people soliciting guests outside not long ago."

She noted the address and said, "We could take a look and see, just to make sure."

We started heading to the address when I realized this was not the restaurant I thought it was. I was actually thinking of Times Scare, and the Jekyll and Hyde Club was something totally different. Whoopsie.

When we arrived, we discovered that no, it was not closed permanently. It was quite busy, as a matter of fact, with a very, very long line to get in. We weren't looking to have a meal; we just wanted a membership. We talked to the guy controlling the line at the entrance, and he pointed us to another door that led to their gift shop/exit.

It was at this point that we found a contrast to another restaurant that offered memberships; when we first went to Bubba Gump's in Times Square, we were offered their membership; one of the bonuses was to get early seating. We pay extra for the membership, we get to jump line.

Both the doorman and the girl at the front desk said we could get a membership, but it would not allow for us to jump line that night. "It wouldn't go over well with the people in the line," said the doorman.

We assured them that wasn't our goal, but rather we were preparing for a return trip in a week or two. It was a little off-putting to be reminded that we were paying for a privilege that was essentially worthless upon joining, however. I suspected they wouldn't have minded us using the membership card for discounted and members-only purchases in the gift shop, though.

Upon joining, we got a few items to designate our membership status. One, a cardboard membership card; I'll admit, I was a little disappointed that it was cardboard since that meant it would be less resistant to damage in the wallet. I was hoping for a plastic card. But as long as it serves its purpose, I suppose that's good enough for me.

In addition to the card we received a pin and a huge certificate of membership; like, posterboard sized. The pin was a nice touch; but I don't normally wear pins. The giant certificate was puzzling to me because it was rather impractical. Theatrical flourish, perhaps? If so, it fits with the theme of the restaurant.

Fast forward to the dinner. True to the promise of the membership club, we showed the doorman our membership card and he pointed us back to the same door leading to the gift area, instructing us to show the clerk the card. We were then pointed up a set of stairs to be seated by the hostess.

The skeletons seemed to be a nice touch.

The restaurant is filled with various statues and knicknacks that at a glance seem to be for gloomy ambiance.

The case has skulls and heads. The Pharaoh's mask reminded me of Stargate.

 

 

Turns out many of these objects are animatronic.

And the ancient dead king spoke English pretty well, too

A giant elephant's head, a mermaid, an organ-playing skeleton, a gargoyle, even a werewolf took turns doling jokes and birthday wishes. There were also a few announcements over the loudspeaker from the security department warning people not to eat floor meat, as it was a trick from the people living under the stairs to lure club members to their death.

In addition to the speaking knicknacks and statues were costumed actors engaging the diners in character. We talked to an assistant to Dr. Hyde and a "social director" for the club. I can only imagine how awkward it must be for them to have uncooperative guests, and imagine they often do encounter them. I don't envy their jobs at all, but they do add to the ambiance.

After a few rounds of the talking statues a live show was performed on a stage below us.

Rise! Rise! And shine!

The restaurant was definitely geared for a spectacle, like a Gothic dinner theater. The food was decent; not outstanding, but definitely not bad. My son actually ate most of his fried chicken and mashed potatoes, as did my father with the same order. The tomato-based sauce with my cheese tortellini (pomodoro?) wasn't my favorite, but overall not bad at all. We also had nachos as an appetizer, which were also good but not great (MORE CHEESE PLEASE!) in my opinion.

Oh, and I got a signature glass with an order of a Zombie. I like getting signature glasses at themed restaurants.

The theatrical display, the ambiance, and the actors were pluses. The biggest drawbacks were the prices and our waitress.

Don't get me wrong; this was only slightly more than Manhattan expensive in terms of restaurants, and there were five of us at the table bringing a bill to around $200. This was quite a splurge, one I don't anticipate repeating for a very long time! But it was to be a special birthday dinner and apparently my parents had been saving up for the occasion. The menu had a note warning customers that the bill adds an extra $3 per person as an entertainment fee, on top of the Times Square food tax (read: tourists tend to pay extra to eat in Times Square.) For most people from my home area, this would be quite a sticker shock. On the other hand you have to think of this as not just dinner, but dinner and a show. Then the pricing makes a little more sense.

Plus I got to keep the signature glass.

I should also note that the desserts my mother and wife ordered were, from what I was told, "Awesome!"

The other drawback was our waitress. Service was beyond slow. The actors talked to us before the waitress. We at first thought another table was being a pain, as we thought we saw her taking several plates back to the kitchen. But even factoring that in, it really was taking too long for her to get to us, and another waitress (hostess?) came to take a drink order for our table to "help her out."

When she did come to our table, she didn't really pay much attention to our table. Rushing, perhaps? Distracted? Uninterested? Even when she asked about dessert, my mom said what she wanted, and the waitress replied with, "I'll get a dessert menu."

I can understand the menu may be for others at the table to look at and opt to order from, but the way she said it came off sounding like she ignored my mother's order. I found this annoying at best.

I prefer to think of incidents like this being isolated one-offs; the waitress could have been overloaded, perhaps it was a bad night, perhaps the kitchen was causing problems. I don't know. My opinion usually goes full-anger if there's a repeated pattern, and since this was a one-time visit I can't tell if there's a pattern against which to judge. So this one visit marks the service as "annoyingly slow."

The last thing to mention would be the gift shop. It, too, carries the Gothic horror theme, decorated with items such as traveling trunks stamped with the White Star line (Titanic history, anyone?) and Dr. Jekyll's name. The walls had bookshelves that doubled as hidden doors, probably to the haunted house attraction we didn't buy tickets to. There were a number of interesting Halloween-esque trinkets available, with discounts for members and some items marked for purchase by members-only.

Overall it was a good experience; I'd have to say that the entire meal was meant to be an experience, rather than just a meal. It was definitely a fitting prep to the days leading up to Halloween.